Publications

@article{10.3897/biss.3.37502,
title = {DiSSCo as a New Regional Model for Scientific Collections in Europe},
author = {Wouter Addink and Dimitrios Koureas and Ana Casino Rubio},
url = {https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.3.37502},
doi = {10.3897/biss.3.37502},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
journal = {Biodiversity Information Science and Standards},
volume = {3},
pages = {e37502},
publisher = {Pensoft Publishers},
abstract = {European Natural Science Collections (NSC) are part of the global natural and cultural capital and represent 80% of the world bio-and geo-diversity. Data derived from these collections underpin thousands of scholarly publications and official reports (used to support legislative and regulatory processes relating to health, food, security, sustainability and environmental change) and let to inventions and products that today play an important role in our bio-economy.
In the last decades, the research practice in natural sciences changed dramatically. Advances in digital, genomic and information technologies enable natural science collections to provide new insights but also ask for changing the current operational and business models of individual collections held at local natural history museums and universities. A new business model that provides unified access to collection objects and all scientific data derived from them. Although aggregating infrastructures like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, GenBank and Catalogue of Life now successfully aggregate data on specific data classes, the landscape remains fragmented with limited capacity to bring together this information in a systematic and robust manner and with scattered access to the physical objects.
The Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) represents a pan-European initiative, and the largest ever agreement of natural science museums, to jointly address the fragmentation of European collections. DiSSCo is unifying European natural science collections into a coherent new research infrastructure, able to provide bio- and geo-diversity data at the scale, form and precision required by a multi-disciplinary user base in science. DiSSCo is harmonising digitisation, curation and publication processes and workflows across the scientific collections in Europe and enables linking of occurrence, genomic, chemical and morphological data classes as well as publications and experts to the physical object.
In this paper we will present the socio-cultural and governance aspects of this research infrastructure. DiSSCo is receiving political support from 11 countries in Europe and will gradually change its funding model from institutional to national funding, with temporary funding from the EC to support the preparation and development. Solutions to achieve large scale digitisation are currently designed in the EC funded ICEDIG project to underpin the future large scale digitisation carried out by the countries. Unified virtual (digitisation on demand) and transnational physical access to the collections is over the next four years being developed in the EC funded SYNTHESYS+ project.
The governance of DiSSCo is designed to gradually change from a steering committee composed of a few large natural history museums contributing in cash to initiate the development into a legal entity in which national consortia are represented, with a central coordination office for daily management. Each country individually decides how its entities (scientific collection facilities, research councils, governmental bodies) are organised in their national consortium. A stakeholder and user forum, Scientific Advisory Board and International Advisory Board will ensure that DiSSCo will be functional in enabling science across disciplines and within the international landscape of infrastructures.
Training and short scientific missions are being developed in the MOBILISE COST Action to build capacity in FAIR data production, publication and usage of scientific collection-derived data in Europe and to initiate the socio-cultural changes needed in the collection-holding institutes. A Helpdesk is being constructed in the SYNTHESYS+ and DiSSCo Prepare projects to further facilitate the use and scientific use cases have been collected in ICEDIG to develop and facilitate e-services tailored to scientific needs.},
keywords = {DiSSCo, Europe, natural history, research infrastructures, RI, scientific collections, specimens},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{10.3897/biss.3.37505,
title = {Collections Digitization and Assessment Dashboard, a Tool for Supporting Informed Decisions},
author = {Ana Casino and Niels Raes and Wouter Addink and Matt Woodburn},
url = {https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.3.37505},
doi = {10.3897/biss.3.37505},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
journal = {Biodiversity Information Science and Standards},
volume = {3},
pages = {e37505},
publisher = {Pensoft Publishers},
abstract = {Natural Science Collections (NSCs) contain specimen-related data from which we extract valuable information for science and policy. Openness of those collections facilitates development of science. Moreover, virtual accessibility to physical containers by means of their digitization will allow an exponential increase in the level of available information. Digitization of collections will allow us to set a comprehensive registry of reliable, accurate, updated, comparable and interconnected information. Equally, the scope of interested potential users will largely expand and so will the different levels of granularity required by researchers, institutions and governmental bodies. Meeting diverse needs entails a special effort in data management and data analysis to extract, digest and present information on a compressed but still precise and objective-oriented format.
The Collections Digitisation Dashboard (CDD) underpins such an attempt. The CDD stands as a practical tool that specifically aims to support high-level decisions with a wide coverage of data, by providing a visual, simplified and structured arrangement that will allow discovery of key indicators concerning digitization of bio- and geodiversity collections. The realm of possible approaches to the CDD covers levels of digitization, collection exceptionality, resourceavailability and many others. Still all those different angles need to be aligned and processed at once to provide an overall overview of the status of NSCs in the digitization process and analyse its further development. The CDD is a powerful mechanism to identify priorities, specialisation lines together with regional development, gaps and niches and future capabilities as well, and strengths and weaknesses across collections, institutions, countries and regions. It can perfectly underpin measurable and comparable assessments, with evolution indexes and progress indicators, all under an overarching homogenous approach.
The Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) Research Infrastructure, currently in its preparatory phase, is built on top of the largest ever community of collections-related institutions across Europe and anchored on the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF). It aims to provide a unique virtual access point to NSCs by facilitating a large and massive digitisation effort throughout Europe. Setting up priorities and specialization areas is pivotal to its success. To that end, the DiSSCo CDD will provide a valuation tool to summarize and showcase NSC's digitization status on a first-hand visualization.
Different projects and initiatives will contribute, jointly and on a synergetic basis, to the production of the DiSSCo CDD. The ICEDIG project will address its basics features, terms of classification and tiers of information, and will produce a prototype and a set of recommendations on how to better attempt a massive dashboard by collating specific collections-based information and defining global strategic representations. CETAF working groups on collections and digitization will provide the desired homogeneity in describing and capturing the different implementation requirements from the users’ perspectives, which will be complemented by the contributions made under the umbrella of the COST Action MOBILISE. The Action will use networking activities to identify the right standards and policies to enable enlarging the scope of the DiSSCo CDD and its broader implementation by linking to the TDWG criteria and adopted standards. Complementarily, the ELViS platform to be developed under the SYNTHESYS+ project will provide the right virtual environment. Furthermore, SYNTHESYS+ will address the assessment capabilities of the CDD to enable the visual representation becoming a practical assessment mechanism and endow it with a dynamic feature for analysis over the time. The DiSSCo CDD will thus become an instrumental mechanism for decision-taking that will be embedded into the clustering initiative of products and services provided to the EOSC by the ENVRI-FAIR project in the environmental domain.},
keywords = {alignment, biodiversity and geodiversity, dashboard, digitization, DiSSCo, high-level information, informed decision-making, institutional description, mechanisms, natural science collections, research infrastructure, tools, visualization},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{10.3897/biss.3.36106,
title = {Training Taxonomists for the Digital World: Are we prepared?},
author = {Boyko B Georgiev and Ana Casino and Catherina Voreadou},
url = {https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.3.36106},
doi = {10.3897/biss.3.36106},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
journal = {Biodiversity Information Science and Standards},
volume = {3},
pages = {e36106},
publisher = {Pensoft Publishers},
abstract = {Digital knowledge and skills are rapidly becoming integral part of the work of the modern taxonomist. Their importance is further increased with the recent recognition of DiSSCo (Distributed System of Scientific Collections, https://dissco.eu). This new pan-European research infrastructure envisions placing European natural science collections at the centre of data-intensive scientific excellence and innovation for taxonomic and environmental research, food security, health and the bioeconomy. The mission of this ambitious project is to mobilise, unify and deliver bio- and geo-diversity information at the scale, form and precision required by scientific communities as well as to transform a fragmented landscape into a coherent and responsive research infrastructure.
An important step in improving the capacity of the research community underpinning DiSSCo is the COST Action MOBILISE (Mobilising Data, Policies and Experts in Scientific Collections, https://www.mobilise-action.eu). One of major capacity-building objectives is to facilitate implementation of common standards and newly-developed techniques by training and education. Its achievement is envisaged by standardised training modules such as training courses, workshops, webinars, online tutorials and short-term visits to other research units.
The first impression from surveying interests of candidates to be included into training events, demonstrates an uneven distribution of digital knowledge and skills across countries, institutions and generations. We advocate that a massive coordinated training programme may result in more efficient establishment of common standards and, consequently, better implementation of the forthcoming joint efforts in the development of the new pan-European research infrastricture.},
keywords = {capacity building, Digital knowledge, digital skills, DiSSCo, education, MOBILISE, natural history collections, research, taxonomy, training, young researchers},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{10.3897/biss.3.37149,
title = {Access to Natural History Collections – from SYNTHESYS to DiSSCo},
author = {Sandra Knapp and Sarah Vincent and Christos Arvanitidis and Katherine Dixey and Patricia Mergen},
url = {https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.3.37149},
doi = {10.3897/biss.3.37149},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
journal = {Biodiversity Information Science and Standards},
volume = {3},
pages = {e37149},
publisher = {Pensoft Publishers},
abstract = {Any one collection of objects never tells the whole story. Enabling access to natural history collections by users external to a given institution, has a long history–even that great stay-at-home, Linnaeus, relied on specimens in the hands of others. Neglecting collections outside one’s institution results in duplication and inefficiency, as can be seen in the history of synonymy. Physical access had always been the norm, but difficult for the single individual. A student in the late 20th century had to decide if money were better spent going to one collection or another, or if the sometimes rather fuzzy photographs really represented the taxon she was working with. Loans between institutions were a way to provide access, but came with their own risks. The very individualised–to users as well as institutions–system of access provisioning still operates today but has fundamentally changed in several respects. The SYNTHESYS (Synthesis of Systematic Resources) projects brought a set of European institutions into a consortium with one aim: to provide access to natural history collections in order to stimulate their use across communities. The SYNTHESYS Transnational Access (TA) programme provided access not only to the collections of participating institutions, but also to infrastructures such as laboratories and analytical facilities. The trajectory of TA has led to a change in thinking about natural history collections, along with access to them. Because access has been subsidised at both the individual and institutional levels, participating institutions began to function more as a collective; one infrastructure, albeit loosely dispersed. In the most recent iteration of the SYNTHESYS programme, SYNTHESYS+, access has changed yet again with the times. Technological advances in imaging permit high-quality surrogates of natural history specimens to be exchanged more freely, and Virtual Access (VA) forms an integral part of the SYNTHESYS+ access programme, alongside TA. Virtual access has been operating for some time in the natural history collections community, but like TA, with individual scientists requesting images/sequences/scans from individual institutions or curators. VA, as a centralised service, will be piloted in SYNTHESYS+ in order to establish the basis for community change in access provisioning. But what next? Will we continue to need physical access to specimens and facilities as VA becomes increasingly feasible? As European collections-based institutions coalesce into the DiSSCo (Distributed System of Systematics Collections) infrastructure, will the model established in SYNTHESYS+ continue to function in the absence of centralised funding? In this talk, we will explore the trajectory of access through SYNTHESYS and provide some scenarios for how access to natural history collections–both physical and virtual–may change as we transition to the broader infrastructure that DiSSCo represents.},
keywords = {access, collections, DiSSCo, physical access, SYNTHESYS+, virtual access},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}